Prayer & Faith

“And Jesus said unto them, …verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”  - Matthew 17:20 

You shall not only be able to perform such a wonderful action as this, were it necessary, but any, and everything else, that will make for the glory of God, the enlargement of my [Christ’s] kingdom and interest, the confirmation of truth, and the good of mankind.  -John Gill

“…if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.”

“Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” (KJV) 

“And Jesus said unto him, If thou canst! All things are possible to him that believeth.” (ASV)

“And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”

 -Mark 9:22b-24

As the man put an "if" on the power of Christ, Christ puts an "if" on the faith of the man; and tacitly suggests, that power was not wanting in himself, but faith in him; and should that cure not be performed, it would not be owing to any inability in him, but to his own incredulity. The Arabic version renders it, "what is this thy: saying, if thou canst do any thing?" What dost thou mean by it? Thou oughtest not to doubt of my power; there is no reason for it, after so many miracles wrought; upbraiding the man with his unbelief; and the Ethiopic version renders it thus, "because thou sayest, if thou canst": wherefore to show that power was not wanting in him, provided he had but faith, it follows, “ all things are possible to him that believeth”; that is, "to be done" to him, as the Syriac and Ethiopic versions supply: for all things are not possible to be done by the believer himself, but all things are possible to be done for him, by God.  –John Gill

Two things the Lord has really been challenging me with lately are prayer and faith.  Oh, do these two coincide!  It is hard to pray if you don’t have faith.

I had really been struggling yesterday to truly put my faith in God, ask for the impossible, and trust that He will work.  It is much easier to simply trust that He has a perfect plan for our lives than it is to ask Him for specific things and then wait for and expect His answer.  A question I’ve had in my mind is that I want to be careful that I am not asking for something that may not be God’s will, or just asking selfishly.  We do want to be careful of these things; to be sure.   Last night Mom and I had a very good conversation about these things, and the Lord has been confirming those thoughts again this morning.

 
When we are desiring and asking for things that the Lord has shown us in His Word to be good and right, we can and should confidently ask Him for them.  If He has laid something on our hearts we should not ignore it.  We should lay before God the things that He Himself has said and promised.  I was very encouraged by reading John Gill’s comments on the above passages.  If we are asking for things that will honor His name and build His kingdom then we should ask in faith; nothing wavering.  He says He will work.

 I love the example of this feeble man that the Lord gives us.  So doubtful and weak in faith, but asking none the less.  Christ challenges his lack of faith by speaking the truth of His power.  And then the man’s pitiful plea, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”  Our Lord promises that even if our faith is as small as the smallest seed, it is faith and He will bless it.  That’s a promise!  May we say with the apostles in Luke 17:5 Lord, “increase our faith.”  Let us walk in faith, believing that He is faithful and will get glory for His name in and through us, and then watch Him work. 

Posted by Brittany